Tales From Pixie Wood

RubyRubyRubyRuby!!!! - Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a Round - Up

The round up of our latest Book Group book is taking place over here!

Book Group Round - Up

The round up of Behind the Scenes at the Museum takes place tomorrow over on the book group blog!

See you there!

Cherry

Behind the Scenes at the Museum - round-up date set

Cherry has just set the date for the 'Scenes' round-up over at her Book Club Blog.

The Black & the White Of It!

I found myself thinking about you all over this past weekend. I occasionally go into my stats, not as often as I used to as it can can drive one crazy after a while, but I can see on a day to day basis how many people visit. I came away from my statistic visit in awe of the people who would want to visit with me. Especially to a place called Pixie Wood. Can you tell I regret calling my blog that?

I'm not about to go into a hideous display of false self-deprecation, I always want to pinch people who do that just under their armpit, but what I am going to say is how nourishing and warming it is to be in such good company. I feel we need those feelings of warmth and nourishment to be given to us by other people, whether on-line or not, because we are so very used to other people giving us their anger and hurt. I saw a man assaulted on the platform of a train station the other day and I'll never forget the look of fear in the man's eyes as he looked up at the man who had him by the scruff of the neck. It was all I could do not to jump on the back of this bully and box his ears.

Anyway, the catalyst to this outpouring of gratitude on my part is the overwhelming atmosphere of generosity and openness that was displayed as we all gave feedback for Mrs Dalloway. I am hoping from the bottom of my heart that NOBODY felt unable to give their opinion. Of course I felt a little relieved at finding out I wasn't the only one who didn't enjoy the book. I have been made to feel stupid more than once in my life, as I'm sure we all have,  and I was hoping it wasn't going to happen again. But then again, reading the wonderful points of view and experiences from those who did indeed love it made me certain that I would once again re-visit Mrs D. and the day of her party.

So, as it stands right now at 07.38 on Monday morning it is eleven votes in favour of P&P and 12 votes in favour of Scenes. If someone had said that wouldn't mind reading either of them then I counted that as a vote for each book. Seeing as the vote is so close how about we do Scenes next and P&P after that??

I shall update the side of my blog with a link through to Amazon for any folk that want to buy it to do so. But please do have a good look through any thrift or charity shops in your area before buying a new copy. It's a great way to re-cycle and it means that those pages of print get to live on the minds of even more people.

LBH and I made you all some Vanilla Bread & Butter Pudding on Saturday. It was lovely and I hope you enjoy it just as much as we did. I love and adore cooking with that man that I shall marry on the 1st of August 2008. My Dad once described watching us in the kitchen together as like watching a well oiled machine. I felt oddly proud at this, such is my penchant for things running smoothly. Don't get me wrong, we have spats about three hundred and thirty times each day, each of us is passionate about our feelings although they are expressed differently. Invariably these spats end with LBH saying something that makes me laugh which then leads to him getting another telling off for not taking the spat seriously. HA!

Today he headed off in his uniform 'The Suit' in the dark of the morning. He remarked that it was rather nice to be out this early as he headed off down the road. I called after him "You'll have to feed the cows one day in darkness like this!"

What was it Walt Disney said? "If you can dream it you can do it".......and Disney started with a mouse! 

Mrs Dalloway round up AKA - I Tried, The Good Lord Knows I Tried!

I've rather been dreading this.

I have taken Mrs Dalloway on every train journey, on every car journey, I have taken her to bed and I have sat with her on the sofa and I have still only managed to get to page 38.

I wanted so much to get into this book, to whizz through it and to wax lyrical about how much I loved and adored Virginia's prose. But it didn't happen this time around for me. In fact I have read four other books in-between trying to get my teeth into this one.

Now I do think that one has to be at certain places in one's life or mindset to enjoy certain things. For instance my favourite work of fiction is The Secret History by Donna Tartt and yet I struggled with The Little Friend, her second novel. This was about four years ago so perhaps it's time to pick it up again. And I'm entirely certain that I may be sitting out in the garden one day, when I'm a wise old sage and dressed entirely in white linen, pick up Mrs D. once again and chastise myself for not reading it sooner.

So that's that. I'm sorry my darling Tiffany, I wanted to love it just for you as I know how much you adore literature.

I am however VERY much looking forward to what you all thought of the book. I am wide open to learn from all you discovered about the story and perhaps this will have me picking it up a little before my 60th birthday.

I'd very much like to give this blog book club idea another shot, so after having consulted with the chief angel at The Blue Angel Bakery I'd like to suggest two titles. A classic and a modern classic.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen or Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson.

Perhaps I should see how the feedback for this first book goes before launching into deciding on another one? But I can't help but feel like I'd like to give it another go......anyway, we'll see, if you are prompted to play again do let me know which title you'd prefer and the majority wins.

Have a wonderful weekend, I'm digging the garden!

Cx

Would Anybody Care To Join Me In This?

I don't like doing things like this. It feels like organising a party and nobody showing up.

*deep breath*

So, I found a copy of Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway' on the shelf of a charity bookstore the day before yesterday. I am embarrassed to say that I have never read it although I adored The Hours, especially the score by Phillip Glass who is an enormous favourite of mine. I read a great deal more in the autumn and winter months and I was wondering if anybody would like to join me in reading or even re-reading it? We could read it together and then document what we thought as a comment on this blog in a few weeks.

I'll wait a few days before I start it to see if anybody is interested.

And now I'm going to go and hide behind the sofa just in case nobody want to play!!!!!

Cherry x

Halcyon Days & Why 'Every Little Thing' She Does Is Magic

Each day I work on a different part of the house. That way I spread the load a little bit, I don't feel imprisoned by one room in particular and I have also found that each time I go back to a particular room I have more inspiration to use in it.

The unit in the picture above was found while thrifting in a place called Leominster way back last year. It has been sitting around for all these months and I haven't really known what to do with it. It is sitting on top of some old oak drawers in the guest room before we attach it to the wall. At first I thought that the guest room would end up being rather sweet. I was expecting it to be the one room that would contain various shades of pink and be rather fluffy in it's appearance. But my thoughts on this have evolved now and it is slowly transforming itself into a throwback from the halcyon days of long ago. I like to call them my 'Blyton Days'.

Both my parents and LBH and I read the Enid Blyton books while we were growing up and I'm almost certain that LBH's parents would have done, although it's never something that I have asked. While I was growing up l aways found myself a little miffed when I read that the only famous person to share a birthday with me was Enid Blyton. Nowadays of course I'd quite happily wear that information emblazoned across my chest on a t-shirt.

The Famous Five Series was my favourite, while I know that LBH loved the Secret Seven books. I wanted to be one of the gang in those books and to go on those adventures with them. Of course through the magic of Blyton's writing I could and did go on those adventures but nowadays, as an adult living in a much changed world, I appreciate the books even more than I did when I was small and just beginning to realise how important it was to fill my mind with the written word.

I bought the two books in the picture above on Saturday as I already knew what direction I wanted the guest room to go in and it seemed as if these two were sitting on the shelf and waiting for me to drop by and purchase them. The Adventures of Pip opens with this glorious first sentence...."Pip the pixie was doing the washing up for his Aunt Twinkle"

Ahhhhhhh! I love that. I love that there is a pixie called Pip, I love that he does the washing up and I love the fact that he has an aunt called Twinkle

This is not a twee, sickly sweet yearning for days gone by or a desire to turn back the clock and halt any progress. No, this is a genuine need to get rid of some of the dross that pervades my mind and life through todays media and get back to basics. Simple stories of simple adventures. Where children caught fish in jam jars and would spend days on end in the open air. Eating foods that would contain little or no additives and bask in the shade of an old oak tree if the sun grew too hot.

Ahhhhh, lazy, hazy days of summer.

This is one of the bedside tables in the same room. I'm showing snippets as I haven't even finished the room yet but I like all of the colours on this table. I picked up the embroidered pouch last week underneath the pepper pot in my town. I have filled it with soap, body spray and some other treats for my next guest to use. The Cath Kidston soaps were given to me by my mum and I have to admit to loving the way they have been wrapped up.

That enamelware jug in the background seriously needs filling with some wild daisies or cornflowers but having spoken to our local florist cornflowers have been in short supply this year. Which is sad. I do love cornflowers.

I spent most of yesterday feeling rather small. I was super dooper tired for no apparent reason and I could feel a little confusion creeping in, arm in arm with a sense of being a tad overwhelmed. It's so important to have these types of days. They are our very soul's telling us to stop, look around, check things out, re-evaluate, rest, breathe, laugh or perhaps to do what Mr R. Kipling advises and simply "delight in the simple things"

Today is clearer. I have my to-do list ready and will steadily make my way through it.

Did you see my new arrivals in the top picture? You didn't? I shall give you a close up then......

I have a family of little ducks now. Eeeeek! Amanda from Every Little Thing sent them to me all the way across the Atlantic. I love Amanda's blog and I urge you to read the post dated 30th of July. I have told her many times that I would like her to live down the street from me. We have both come to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't get a great deal of work done but what the heck! The only wrinkles we'd be cultivating would be laughter lines and that's OK with me!

My little duck family sit in my new guest room, the Blyton Room. The room that reminds me of my childhood days in the summer, the good things in life and friends. Even if they are very far away.

Have a lovely day and thank you so much for reading. I checked my blog statistics yesterday and was totally blown away by the numbers that I saw. I don't know who you all are, where you come from, what you think or how you found me. But I'd like to say welcome and thank you. I know how busy you all are and it humbles me to think that you would take time out of your day to spend it with me.

Today I'm back in the Blyton Room. I have to give some of the walls a second coat of paint. It is also exactly a year from today that LBH and I marry. If that isn't the most delicious thought to carry through the day them I'm a lost cause!  Oh how I love that man.

I'll see you again on Friday.

Lots of love

Cherry x

Variations On All Sorts Of Themes

 

OK, so I colour coordinate my books. Yep! I think they look GREAT when they are sitting on my shelves or in my bookcase and the spines all seem to match. We have picked out an oak bookcase for one of the alcoves in the living room of the new house. It will go floor to ceiling and is a nice chunky number with shelves that have 'depth'. We'll be putting novels and other odds and sods on this particular bookcase, colour coordinated of course. I'll put all of my cookbooks into the kitchen obviously and the crafting, decorating, thrifting books etc will all go into our new home office (i.e. spare bedroom that will one day be a nursery.....I hope.......eek!....going through a broody phase).

It grieves me when I see a bunch of books that look good together but I know that they will not be able to reside in the same room. Take the picture above for instance. There we  have two craft books, two foodie books and a garden book. There is no way that they can all hang out together and that makes me a little sad because I find them, collectively, rather pleasing to the eye.

 

These books however (above) WILL be able to spend eternity nattering. Susan Branch sent me possibly the most beautiful package I have ever received and two of the books she sent are in the picture. It was sent to Pixie Wood and my mother, who received it for me, was just as excited as I was at the opening ceremony. Ahhhhhh! I felt like I had been dropped from a great height and landed in the largest pile of feathers imaginable. The packaging, the note inside, the books themselves were all perfect. Susan's books sit with a book that The Ritz of London put out on the subject of afternoon tea and my battered notebook, purchased from the Anthropology that is right by the farmers market in L.A., sits with them also. Now officially the book on afternoon tea should be in the kitchen with the foodie books but it's more of a reference book, hence the fact that it shall go in the new office with all of the other pretty books.

Is that not so true?? All crafting, decorating, homemaking & thrifting books are simply the prettiest things. Whether they be hard or soft-back, illustrated or filled with photographs. I have bought a book on account of the pretty picture on the front so many times I have lost count. They reside in our homes like paper jewels. My agent and I (how wonderful that feels to write, let me tell you) were discussing books the other day. We both have emotional reactions to books and her background in television is of the lifestyle kind. Perfect for me really as if it were cars or sports I don't think our meetings would be as fruitful ;-) But we both sat there and were able to make pages of notes outlining the types of books we'd like to see published one day.

Of course the books don't all have to be kept on shelves with only their spines on show. My reason for keeping all of my books in certain rooms in the house is simply so that I am able to find them. I know myself too well and also know that if I need a book at a moments notice I need to know exactly where it will be. But I shall be creating vignettes around the house using certain books and other accessories. The books in the picture above are really small and only have about 30 pages in them. They sit with a knitted tea cosy that LBH's great aunt Violetta gave to me when we visited Zurich last Spring. I like this set up. And as long as the books are in the kitchen they can sit with the tea cosy for as long as they like. One of the books can even elope with the tea cosy for all I care as long as they DO NOT LEAVE THE KITCHEN! ;-)

I'd like to show you something else today.........

This is a Love Box and it was sent to me by Tiffany . Let me tell you that it is absolutely perfect. And charming. And pretty. I ran my beady eye over it and could find no fault, her work is totally precious as was her letter. Do visit Tiffany, she is a gentle soul with a lovely blog.

And so all I have to do now is to thank you profusely for your name suggestions for the new bag. I am writing them up and putting them all into a rather large receptacle. I shall be doing the draw on Saturday morning and recording it for you to see. I shall post the result on Monday and put the collection onto the website for sale. The thought and imagination and generosity that has gone into those names is............too much and I feel totally ill equipped to thank you adequately. One bag hardly seems enough.

So, have a wonderful day wherever you may be. I wish you light, love and a spring in your step. I myself am spreading myself very thin these days with all that I have to get done and my to-do list has imploded under the weight and is very cross with me. But I have LBH, Boo, coffee,  a new house, a wedding to plan and a double bill of Greys Anatomy every Sunday night to keep me happy. And that, my friends, makes everything else achievable.

Love Cherry xx